1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording apparatus for managing copying and moving of content data.
2. Description of the Related Art:
Information recording apparatuses which incorporate a large-capacity information storage medium such as a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) are gaining prevalence. In such an information recording apparatus, content data management information to be used for the management of recorded content data is generated and recorded in an HDD. The content data management information represents, for example, program name information, program's cast information, channel information, and the number of times each program has been played back. Presenting the management information to a user facilitates the user's management of content data (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-369138).
When data of a certain content has been recorded to a removable medium such as an optical disk medium or a semiconductor memory card, what is commonly practiced in order to indicate that the particular content data is recorded on that removable medium is to attach a label on the removable medium surface, for example, and write down the particulars of the recording with a pen or the like.
However, it is difficult to write in length on such a removable medium surface. Moreover, it would be very cumbersome to always describe the latest information on the surface of a rewritable information storage medium.
When copy-once content data (e.g. digital broadcast content data whose copying is prohibited) is moved from an information recording apparatus to an information storage medium, it will become difficult, as the user's memory fades, to remember which information storage medium the particular data has been moved to.
Moreover, as the number of information storage media in the user's possession increases, it will become more cumbersome for the user to take each such information storage media in his or her hand to examine whether it is the very information storage medium on which the desired content data is recorded.
Furthermore, in the case where a piece of content data has been deleted from the HDD of an information recording apparatus, it is up to the user's own effort as to how well the user can keep track of whether the content data has been completely deleted (and therefore is no longer existent), or copied onto another information storage medium.